In the rather dinky looking neighborhood of Tacubaya, not far from where I live in Mexico City there is an unassuming little wall. It is the corner of Gorrión and Ave. Jalisco, right next to the on-ramp to Periferico, our gigantic urban superhighway. So naturally the place has little to offer on its own. Also, the entire area in general, but this little corner in particular, is typically unkempt, ignored, and littered with trash and other unseemly things. All this makes the location even less likely to feature art of any sort on its walls. But that is exactly what I found here. In fact, it is almost like a whole gallery.
It's the Whole Place, Not Just the Images
Admittedly, the framed pieces on the walls are less interesting by themselves. They show images from the Bosque de Chapultepec park, which is still in walking distance, though honestly, it's worlds apart from this grubby corner of Tacubaya. In fact, the images are painted in such a romanticized way that suggests the artist has never even been there, which of course is ridiculous to assume. However, it fits so well into this setting of Tacubaya, which is so different that it may just as well be on another planet.
The best part about the entire arrangement on the wall, is that it is set up to look like an art gallery, complete with people to admire the paintings. One of the characters painted on the wall is a young man wearing a hoodie and sweat pants, who could easily be one of the dudes from that neighborhood. The other one is a little girl, making a sketch of the painting. The graffiti tag above her is clearly not part of the mural, though an obvious reminder of where you are. I wonder how long it will take before the entire painting is covered up by these tags.
Other than that, however, there is no identifying mark of an artist, at least from what I could see, making it another anonymous piece of urban art.
This post is my submission to this week's CCC's Street Art Contest, which is always a great place to find many amazing murals from around the world.
If you would like to see more of my mural posts, take a look at my Mexican Murals series.